Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hey people! If you have not already noticed, a new version of Pocket OneMap has been rolled out!

Today, we shall introduce the main function that is added in this latest version - driving route, and we are totally excited about this addition!

So quick, get your phones out and start downloading the app! (Take note that for iPhone users, you would require iOS 4.3 and above to download it)

First of all, the interface of the app still remains the same except the right side search tab is longer this time to include a search icon and the routing icon.

Let's go straight into the routing function! Once you tap the lower icon, you will reach the routing option display and we have got to say this interface is super intuitive! :D

First, add in your starting location. If the phone has already identified your current location, just keep it as it is and move on to add your destination. If you want to find out how to get your destination from another place, you may wish to tap and search for that location to start.

Next, add in your destination. Tap and you will go into the search option to type in your destination. Once done, tap on the place that you wish to input as the destination.

The 3rd step is to select if you want to travel by the fastest or shortest route. The default option is fastest and the option you select will be highlighted in blue.

And finally, you can choose if you wish to avoid ERP gantries. Once you are done, tap this last option and the route will be generated.

You will see the route summary 1st with step by step guides to bring you from your starting location to the destination.

Select the Map option on the top left corner of the app and full route will be shown on the map. You can tap the left and right arrows below the estimated time info and the map will zoom in to the roads displayed in the step by step guide.

That's it! TeamOneMap finds this new routing option extremely useful especially when you are on the go, hope all of you feel the same way too! :)

Friday, October 5, 2012

Welcome back to part 2 of our blogpost on how to use Restroom Association (Singapore)'s LOO Connect.

Today we will talk about the remaining 3 icons in this crowdsourcing app. Again, you may wish to open the LOO Connect website: http://www.toilet.org.sg/looconnect.html and go through the steps in this post to learn how to navigate your way in this awesome map-based app.

1. Last 10 Added Locations

Besides selecting categories to view users' inputs on the map, you may also wish to see where are the newest additions to the map. The "Last 10 Added Locations" icon will do just that.

Click on the middle icon on the top right of the app that has a location pin and the last 10 locations added by any user, regardless of the category, will be displayed on the map.

2. Adding your comments

Here comes the fun part of crowdsourcing! Contribute your inputs in just a few simple steps!

For example, I have an unpleasant experience using a particular restroom at a shopping mall. When I am back at my desktop, I can go to LOO Connect and the first thing to do would be to locate the shopping mall. You can do so by keying in the shopping mall name in the "Find Location" form. The improved intelligent search mechanism running at the back end should help you find it easily. :)

After the map zooms into the specified location, you can then select the category (disgusting toilet in this case), click the "Add Location" icon (with a plus sign) and select the appropriate thread from the dropdown list.

Once done, you can click on the approximate location of the toilet and the system will find the closest address to the point you have selected on the map. (Alternatively, you may click on the map to add the location of the restroom before selecting the appropriate thread.)

If the address is right, you can continue to type in your comments in the comments box followed by your name and email address before clicking on the save button. If you have taken pictures, you can upload them as well!

You will see a notification that the location is successfully added and now others can see what you have contributed!

3. Need more help?

There is also a Help icon to assist users if they encounter any issue using the app. By clicking on the question mark icon, you will be directed to the OneMap crowdsourcing help page where you can view step by step videos on the different icons.

That's all for our coverage of the LOO Connect crowdsourcing app by RAS! Do your part in achieving a world class toilet culture in Singapore by contributing to this programme! :)

The interface of the app is pretty neat and simple. There is the usual search form to find locations and a "get directions" option for routing purposes. The legend of the icons is already indicated by RAS on the top right.

"Select Category" allows users to view the different types of crowdsourced data
"Last 10 Added Locations" displays the last 10 inputs added by users
"Add Location" allows users to select a location on the map and type in their comments
"Clear Map" removes all displayed icons
"Help" directs users to the OneMap help page on crowdsourcing

Users can view the locations of disgusting toilets, certified restrooms or clean school toilets by clicking on the "Select Category" icon, followed by one of the three categories listed.

For example, if you want to find out more on a particular disgusting toilet, you can zoom in on the map and click on the disgusting toilet icon.

For this public toilet, you can view who keyed it in and the comments given. To view the full comments or reply to the user, just click on the comment itself or select the "add comment" button and a 2nd column with the full comments and comment box will be available for you to reply.

RAS added the certified restroom information for users to view and give comments on whether they deserve the recognition.

If the user (RAS in this case) added some pictures or videos, you can also view them by clicking on the small camera or videocam icons.

After viewing locations of restrooms for any selected category, users can select the "clear map" option to remove the display of icons on the map.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Hey people, it is the time of the month again to reveal the top 10 most searched themes on OneMap! For our new fans who may not be familiar with this series of post, let us do a quick introduction!

Right now, there are about 50 thematic layers on OneMap contributed by various government agencies. The usage of these spatial information are being tracked monthly and each month, we will have a look at the top searched themes and see if we can put on our analytical caps to identify the correlation between what's happening around us and if they reflect on the usage of some of these themes. :)

Ok, let's get to the chart! Here are our top searched themes for the month of June 2012:

Ah... it seems like for the 1st time, we have our top 5 positions unchanged! Usually our top 3 themes would be Kindergarten, Community Clubs and Child Care Services. Any position from 4th and below are very likely to change but not this time! Clinging on to the 4th and 5th spots are Hawker Centres and Parks. The push to replace one of the top 3 themes in June was seriously intense with Hawker Centres theme nearly catching up with Child Care Services!

Our "causalities" in June are Community Use Sites and Dengue Clusters as they gave way to Recycling Bins and a brand new theme in top 10: Student Care Services! Perhaps these Student Care Centres have organised activities for students and their parents to participate in during the June holidays, causing the spike in users searching for their locations. :)

That's it for this round's post! We shall wait for another month to pass before we have our next edition of the monthly top searched themes on OneMap!

At the main interface, users can see the different categories of information. You can locate recycling bins, view achievements unlocked, see who are your recycling buddies and see where you stand in the recycling leaderboard.

The main gist of this app is this: Locate recycling bins, check-in to recycle something, unlock achievements and challenge your buddies at the leaderboard to claim your rights to be the called the top eco-friendly guy!

The OneMap base map loads up when you are in the recycling bin section. Zoom in and out of the map to locate the nearest recycling bins. When you are close enough to the bin location, you can check-in to indicate you have used the recycling bin. Details such as the number of times you have used the recycling bin, how many buddies have recycled at the same bin are displayed.

You can also check out more information such as who is the caretaker of the bin. If you are the caretaker, you will gain 2 points for every check-in by others to this location to recycle. (The caretaker is the one who recycled the most number of times at the recycling bin.) Besides this, the textual location of the bin is also displayed. You can also leave "footprints" by adding some comments on the recycling bin and view what others has got to say too if they left "footprints" earlier.

You can keep track of your points and see achievements that are unlocked at the Achievements and Leaderboard sections. Each time you unlock an achievement, you can also choose to share with it your friends on Facebook!

To add buddies, simply choose them from your contact list or from your Facebook friends. The more buddies you have the better as each buddy's check-in to the same bin let's you gain extra buddies points!

The competitive element of gaming comes in the form of the leaderboard. You can check how your buddies are faring compared to you and other fellow EcoFinder users. :)

That's it! Hope you have enjoyed the few weeks of OneMap Challenge 2012 featured apps! :)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

The weeks went by pretty fast and we are now in the 4th OneMap Challenge 2012 feature app post! This time, we switch back to mobile apps and introduce a handy app if you are visiting Nanyang Polytechnic - iGoNYP!

iGoNYP is available for iPhone users to download at the Apps store: http://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/igonyp/id409796153?mt=8 This mobile app is designed for new students and visitors to familiarise themselves with the campus and navigate to the various amenities within the school easily.

The main display menu has a few tabs.

By tapping the Campus Info tab, users can view the locations of different faculties and centres by tapping on the magnifying glass under the View Map column.

For example, we wish to find out where is the Theatre of the Arts, we
can simply tap on the magnifying glass and view the location. Users can
also tap on the red pin to reveal the block and level of the place.

Under the Get There tab, users can get more information on how to get to NYP campus either by bus or by MRT.

In the Amenities tab, there are 3 categories of information: Services, Food & Beverages and Sports & Recreation. For example, we wish to find out under Services, the locations of ATM machines. To do so, just tap on the ATM machines you want to find out followed by tapping on the View Map button to display its location.

For the Map View tab, upon selection, will automatically locate your current location (make sure your Location Services is turned on). You can do a few things here. The app will display the routing direction from your current location to NYP if you select Get Direction.

The routing details can also be reveal by tapping on the right and left arrow button beside the routing header.

If you are within NYP campus, try tapping on any of the small icons on the left. For example, we tapped the eateries icon and the locations of food outlets are displayed on the map. The other icons include Public Phone, Parking Area and AED facility.

And finally, a very cool augmented reality function is also available! You can click on the Augmented Reality tab above the left icons and hold your phone up. You will be able to see the different amenities and their distances away depending on which icon you select.

Source: segm-cns.blogspot.com

That's it for iGoNYP! Be sure to check out our next feature app next weekend!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Hey people, we have another new service built using OneMap! This time, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) has developed the MCYS Directory locator which makes it easier for users to search for social services based on locations.

To search for locations of social services, first key in a postal code in the "Enter your location" form and hit the "Go" button. If you have not selected any of the categories on the left panel of the service, the default settings will search for Family Service Centres first.

The map will display icons of the nearest centres (in this case, family service centres) to the postal code which was keyed in. As usual, you can click on the icon to display the name and address of the family service centre.

To get a closer view of the location, you can either zoom in directly or click on the hyperlinked centre names in the middle column and you can view the mini map of the location together with the address.

For Child Care Centres, there is also a filtering option to narrow down your search. You can choose to only display results based on distance (maximum 5km away), price range (from below $300 to above $1000 per month) as well as the food menu options. This filter option provides great convenience for parents to find suitable child care centres for their kids. :)

For the Kindergarten and Student Care Centres, the filter option is by distance only.

And finally, for Voluntary Welfare Organisations, besides filtering locations based on distance, users can also choose the type of services available to be displayed on the map.

Links

About

OneMap is an integrated map system for government agencies to deliver location-based services and information. It is a multi-agency collaboration with many government agencies currently participating and contributing information. More agencies will be coming on-board soon.

It can also be used by the private sector and the community to create useful and value-added services.

You can find locations using intelligent search, get driving directions, obtain comprehensive information contributed by government agencies and explore the maps using a variety of widgets.